Catch Up and Almost Breaking a Tray

What I've Missed

Happy 2013! I just shoved on my first new trays of the year. With the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays I've missed a few posts so I wanted to make a quick update while trays were on my mind. My last progress post included pictures of my teeth on 10/30/2012.

Here are the posts I've missed since then:

• 11/13/12 Progress after tray 10
• 11/27/12 Progress after tray 11
• 12/12/12 Progress after tray 12 - no picures sorry
• 12/26/12 Progress after tray 13 - no picures sorry
• 1/9/13 Progress after tray 14

On 12/12 I had interproximal reduction (teeth shaving) done for my bottom teeth.  The dentist decided  to wait for a few more trays before doing the top so I have to go back after to have the top areas reduced. I'm going to do a full post detailing the interproximal reduction experience, so stay tuned for details.

Tray Shenanigans

Today's trays were the hardest to get on yet.  I wasn't sure if I was going to get the top tray on without breaking it part of it. The edge over the right K9 tooth folded down a bit while I was trying to get it on...unsuccessfully. I used some tweezers to fix it before trying again. Maybe I just had a bad angle or something, but I did get the tray on about 30 seconds later. They're about as tight as usual. Nothing too out of the ordinary, save for my trimus (lockjaw) on the right jaw seems to have eased up a bit instead of being worse. We'll see if it lasts. The jaw definitely feels different, but I can't yet figure out in what way or if its going to be more or less painful than before. Wish me luck!

Progress Weeks 17-18

Images After: Tray 9

Remaining Trays: 15

Lockjaw: Consistent. No pain
Headaches: None
Pain: Only sore first day of new tray

Wear: 16-20 hours a day
Brushing: Not as much as I should during the day at work
Flossing: Every night

Front View

Top View

Bottom View

Right View 

Left View

Progress Weeks 15-16

Below are pictures after tray 8, I'm currently on tray 10 so I'll also be posting pictures after tray 9 soon.
No changes to my tray-wearing experience. It's actually become pretty predictable, so I figured it would be good to just have a standard checklist that gets posted with each picture set to make posts easier and more consistent for me.

Images After: Tray 8
Remaining Trays: 16

Lockjaw: Consistent. No pain
Headaches: None
Pain: Only sore first day of new tray

Wear: 18-20 hours a day
Brushing: Not as much as I should during the day at work
Flossing: Every night

Front View

Top View

Bottom View

Left View

Right View

Progress Weeks 13-14

Tray seven is done, 17 to go! Below are pictures after tray 7. I was in a rush had just eaten. I didn't have time to brush so some of the pictures show just how super stained your teeth are after food and drink. Insane right? I've decided to try to add side shots to the set because this seems to be where things are doing the most movement right now.

The lockjaw and craziness of not really having a matched bite has become more "normal" for me. I think my teeth have gotten used to moving around all loosey goosey so I don't really have as much pain after a new trays. It's kinda of sore after I take of the trays for sure, but no major headaches or tension like I had when I first started Invisalign. Kind of hard to believe that I'll been wearing my trays for almost 4 months now. I'll be moving into tray 9 in just a few days. Kind of exciting to be coming up on the halfway mark (tray 12) before I know it! :)

Front View

Top View

Bottom View

Right View

Left View

Doing pretty good. I haven't been wearing my trays as much as I should - more like 18-20 hours rather than 20-22 but it hasn't been an issue. Things are moving around well, pain isn't constant in any way. I floss every night and have a brushing routine that isn't psycho. Things are good and it's more "routine" now. Not gonna lie though, I'm ready to have these things off. June 2013 can't come soon enough!

Progress Weeks 11-12

Here are my pictures after tray six, with 18 remaining trays.All attachments are still on, though I did get worried one day when I popped my tray on and something came loose. It was food. HA! Where did that come from? : O

Maybe I'm crazy but I feel like my teeth are looking MORE crooked on the bottom than before. I keep inspecting the trays, to make sure things are matching up and they are but who knows LOL. The lockjaw and popping is constant now, can be painful. When I was on tray 6 it was definitely the worst it'd been. I started taking the soma (muscle relaxer) which helped more than I thought it would. I'm behind on these post so I'm trying to get caught up.

Front View

Top View

Bottom View

Slacked on wearing my trays enough during tray 6. Hadn't been wearing my trays as much as I should - more like 16-20 hours instead of 20-22. OUCH. I still floss every night and the next tray went on without issue due to me being good about wearing it the few days before the switch! I blame snacking and delicious non-clear liquids. :)

Slacking on wearing my trays :(

I admit it, for the last couple weeks I've been slacking on wearing my trays. I blame delicious snacks and non-clear liquids! There have been at least 5 days during tray six where I've left the trays off for 2-5 hour stints in the evening. On average for tray 6 I've been wearing the trays for more more like 16-20 hours instead of 20-22. The effect? Every time I put the trays back on, they're pretty tight and not getting looser the way I know they should be. Brushing your teeth constantly definitely gets tiresome and requires commitment. I gotta buck up.

Tomorrow night I'm supposed to upgrade to tray seven. I'm a little worried about how painful that's going to be. I only have myself to blame, which is both annoying and gratifying. (Who doesn't like control?) To be fair, I have been trying to pick back up on wearing my trays correctly the last few days - and of course expect to going forward. I can feel some loosening in the trays as of today...still not looking forward to the pain that tomorrow evening will bring. Alas! Progress pictures to follow tomorrow.

Progress Weeks 9-10

Tray five is done, 19 to go! All attachments are still on and holding strong after my second tray with them on.

Below are pictures after tray 5. The headaches have been reduced a little, in favor of more teeth pain than anything. I do have jaw tension and my lockjaw has become pretty much constant. I filled the prescription for muscle relaxers when I started tray 7. I'm kind of behind on posting so I'll get these posted ASAP since it's almost time for post-tray 6 pictures!

Front View

Top View

Bottom View

Starting to slack. Haven't been wearing my trays as much as I should - more like 18-20 hours rather than 20-22. I'm still flossing every night though! Not wearing the trays as much as I should, I'm sure it having a direct affect on me having more constant lock jaw. I think its that combined with the fact that the movement is more aggressive now that the attachments are on. :(